Tags |
|
|
Links |
|
|
Suggest You - Managers, Why Stress Over Your PR?
Today’s consumer is a moving target. Choosing the right consumer and the right demographic to target is an important decision. Monitoring what is hot and what’s not can dramatically influence a package design’s success or failure. Package design is an integral way to connect with your customer. But do you clearly understand the needs and wants of these elusive markets?Understand the customer is critical. The problem today is that one package may not satisfy the needs and requirements of all buyers.There are many niche markets out there and each one requires specialized packaging. So if you are targeting one of those, do your research first. What works for one target market may not work for another. So....1) Find out what package attributes appeal to the customer you are targeting. If it is a harried homemaker shopping for your product then convenience of use had better b
As is always the case in administering programs, you need to establish a clearcut and realistic PR goal calling for action on the most serious problem areas you uncovered during your key audience perception monitoring. You may decide to straighten out that dangerous misconception, bring to an end that potentially painful rumor, or correct that gross inaccuracy.
As you might suspect, it will be necessary to connect your new g
It is an all-too-familiar scenario. Corporation X misses badly on its commitments several quarters in a row and the stock plummets. As a result, the Board loses confidence, the CEO “resigns,” and a new CEO is appointed who immediately announces a sweeping restructure of the corporation.In the past few years, papers have been inundated with such reports. Even at corporations where top-level executives show signs of “vision” and have articulated what seems to be a sound business strategy on paper, results fall short of expectations.We have all been there at one point or another in our careers. The leadership team spends long hours agreeing on a 3- or 5-year strategy to improve the performance of the business. Management teams work equally hard to come up with supportive annual budgets. Both teams populate long PowerPoint presentations and well-built, exhaustive spreadsheet files. Yet not
And that almost always means doing something both positive and meaningful about the behaviors of those important outside audiences of yours whose behaviors MOST affect the departmental, divisional or subsidiary unit you manage.
This assumes, by the way, that you are a manager who needs and wants the kind of public relations effort that leads directly to achieving your managerial objectives.
You can do this by persuading key outside folks of yours to your way of thinking by helping move them to take actions that help your department, group, division or subsidiary succeed. But it can only happen when you as a manager require more than tactics like special events, news releases and broadcast plugs. That’s when you’ll receive the quality public relations results you deserve.
The good news is that there’s a solid foundation under- pinning this approach to managerial public relations: people act on their own perception of the facts before them, which leads to predictable behaviors about which something can be done. When we create, change or reinforce that opinion by reaching, persuading and moving-to-desired-action the very people whose behaviors affect the organization the most, the public relations mission is usually accomplished.
More good news for managers lies in the kind of PR end-products that can come your way. For example, new proposals for strategic alliances and joint ventures start showing up; community leaders begin to seek you out; capital givers or specifying sources start to look your way; welcome bounces in show room visits occur; politicians and legislators begin looking at you as a key member of the business, non-profit or association communities; customers begin to make repeat purchases; and membership applications start to rise.
Your public relations professionals are your shock troops in making this work. They are already in the perception and behavior business, and can handle your data gathering activity, an essential component of your new opinion monitoring project. However, you should satisfy yourself that your PR staff really accepts why it’s SO important to know how your most important outside audiences perceive your operations, products or services. Essentially, be sure they truly believe that perceptions almost always result in behaviors that can help or hurt your operation.
Invest some time in going over your plans for monitoring and gathering perceptions by questioning members of your most important outside audiences. Propose that the staff consider questions like these: how much do you know about our organization? Have you had prior contact with us and were you pleased with the exchange? Are you familiar with our services or products and employees? Have you experienced problems with our people or procedures?
By the way, hiring survey pros to handle the opinion gathering work, can result in costs exceeding the cost of using your own staff people. But whether it’s your people or a survey firm asking the questions, the objective remains the same: identify untruths, false assumptions, unfounded rumors, inaccuracies, misconceptions and any other negative perception that might translate into hurtful behaviors.
As is always the case in administering programs, you need to establish a clearcut and realistic PR goal calling for action on the most serious problem areas you uncovered during your key audience perception monitoring. You may decide to straighten out that dangerous misconception, bring to an end that potentially painful rumor, or correct that gross inaccuracy.
As you might suspect, it will be necessary to connect your new go
In 2005, I was a new and inexperienced internet marketer looking for ways to drive traffic to my web site. I came across the Adblaster by MegaPromoter, the site promised to instantly and effectivelysubmit my websites to over 2,500,000 internet advertising sites and search engines.It sounded very promising to me, so much so, that I immediately whipped out my credit card and purchased Adblaster. Basically, all I needed to do was enter my website address and hit submit, and I could see a little bar going across the computer screen as if it was indeed sending my websites to the 2,500,000 sites and search engines. This piece of software did not even bring 1% of the traffic that it promised me and it was a complete waste of my time and money. I felt that I had been taken and lied to and I was very disappointed.Later I learned that the Adblaster by MegaPromoter<
The good news is that there’s a solid foundation under- pinning this approach to managerial public relations: people act on their own perception of the facts before them, which leads to predictable behaviors about which something can be done. When we create, change or reinforce that opinion by reaching, persuading and moving-to-desired-action the very people whose behaviors affect the organization the most, the public relations mission is usually accomplished.
More good news for managers lies in the kind of PR end-products that can come your way. For example, new proposals for strategic alliances and joint ventures start showing up; community leaders begin to seek you out; capital givers or specifying sources start to look your way; welcome bounces in show room visits occur; politicians and legislators begin looking at you as a key member of the business, non-profit or association communities; customers begin to make repeat purchases; and membership applications start to rise.
Your public relations professionals are your shock troops in making this work. They are already in the perception and behavior business, and can handle your data gathering activity, an essential component of your new opinion monitoring project. However, you should satisfy yourself that your PR staff really accepts why it’s SO important to know how your most important outside audiences perceive your operations, products or services. Essentially, be sure they truly believe that perceptions almost always result in behaviors that can help or hurt your operation.
Invest some time in going over your plans for monitoring and gathering perceptions by questioning members of your most important outside audiences. Propose that the staff consider questions like these: how much do you know about our organization? Have you had prior contact with us and were you pleased with the exchange? Are you familiar with our services or products and employees? Have you experienced problems with our people or procedures?
By the way, hiring survey pros to handle the opinion gathering work, can result in costs exceeding the cost of using your own staff people. But whether it’s your people or a survey firm asking the questions, the objective remains the same: identify untruths, false assumptions, unfounded rumors, inaccuracies, misconceptions and any other negative perception that might translate into hurtful behaviors.
As is always the case in administering programs, you need to establish a clearcut and realistic PR goal calling for action on the most serious problem areas you uncovered during your key audience perception monitoring. You may decide to straighten out that dangerous misconception, bring to an end that potentially painful rumor, or correct that gross inaccuracy.
As you might suspect, it will be necessary to connect your new g
The Wisconsin State Agency that oversees the collection and reporting of State income taxes deducted from payroll checks is:Department of Revenue Income, Sales, Inheritance and Excise Tax Division P.O. Box 8910 2135 Rimrock Rd. Madison, WI 53713 (608) 266-2776 www.dor.state.wi.us/Wisconsin allows you to use the Federal W-4 form or the "WT-4, Employee's Wisconsin Withholding Exemption Certificate/New Hire Reporting" to calculate state income tax withholding.Not all states allow salary reductions made under Section 125 cafeteria plans or 401(k) to be treated in the same manner as the IRS code allows. In Wisconsin cafeteria plans are not taxable for income tax calculation; not taxable for unemployment insurance purposes. 401(k) plan deferrals are not taxable for income taxes; taxable for unemployment purposes.In Wisconsin supplemental wages are taxed at:
Your public relations professionals are your shock troops in making this work. They are already in the perception and behavior business, and can handle your data gathering activity, an essential component of your new opinion monitoring project. However, you should satisfy yourself that your PR staff really accepts why it’s SO important to know how your most important outside audiences perceive your operations, products or services. Essentially, be sure they truly believe that perceptions almost always result in behaviors that can help or hurt your operation.
Invest some time in going over your plans for monitoring and gathering perceptions by questioning members of your most important outside audiences. Propose that the staff consider questions like these: how much do you know about our organization? Have you had prior contact with us and were you pleased with the exchange? Are you familiar with our services or products and employees? Have you experienced problems with our people or procedures?
By the way, hiring survey pros to handle the opinion gathering work, can result in costs exceeding the cost of using your own staff people. But whether it’s your people or a survey firm asking the questions, the objective remains the same: identify untruths, false assumptions, unfounded rumors, inaccuracies, misconceptions and any other negative perception that might translate into hurtful behaviors.
As is always the case in administering programs, you need to establish a clearcut and realistic PR goal calling for action on the most serious problem areas you uncovered during your key audience perception monitoring. You may decide to straighten out that dangerous misconception, bring to an end that potentially painful rumor, or correct that gross inaccuracy.
As you might suspect, it will be necessary to connect your new g
The biggest problem with the carpet cleaning industry is that anyone can get in with little money. In many cases, carpet cleaning businesses are started on less than a few thousand dollars. Then, the start-up "entrepreneurs" jump in with no marketing plan. The only way they know to compete is by price. They figure if they charge the cheapest prices in town, they'll get lots of business.Don't feel bad if that's how you started. Heck, it's how I started. But what you can do is use your competitor's lack of education to your advantage. Based on most of the advertising I see, it won't be hard to beat them.First, make sure you have a reason for you existence. Why is your company needed in your market place? What is your unique selling proposition? If you are just another carpet cleaner, you might as well quit and get a real job. I'm sure your city has enough average Joe cleaners.
Invest some time in going over your plans for monitoring and gathering perceptions by questioning members of your most important outside audiences. Propose that the staff consider questions like these: how much do you know about our organization? Have you had prior contact with us and were you pleased with the exchange? Are you familiar with our services or products and employees? Have you experienced problems with our people or procedures?
By the way, hiring survey pros to handle the opinion gathering work, can result in costs exceeding the cost of using your own staff people. But whether it’s your people or a survey firm asking the questions, the objective remains the same: identify untruths, false assumptions, unfounded rumors, inaccuracies, misconceptions and any other negative perception that might translate into hurtful behaviors.
As is always the case in administering programs, you need to establish a clearcut and realistic PR goal calling for action on the most serious problem areas you uncovered during your key audience perception monitoring. You may decide to straighten out that dangerous misconception, bring to an end that potentially painful rumor, or correct that gross inaccuracy.
As you might suspect, it will be necessary to connect your new g
You've all heard some business owners whine about employees: "my staff members are always coming to work late", "my employees' children are always getting sick", "I have high employee turnover". Why do some owners not whine? Maybe they have looked at their employees and adjusted to the obvious. If the owner is habitually late, your employees will be, too. If your employees are mostly young parents, yes their children will be sick. Look at your employment package and then work with your employees to see how you can customize it within your company's budget. This attention may help solve the retention problem.A small CPA firm in a rural Midwest town was always losing accountants after a short tenure, and with tax season was just around the corner and he was short staffed, again. He complained that he just didn't understand what to do. While talking about his dilemma, he discovered the e
As is always the case in administering programs, you need to establish a clearcut and realistic PR goal calling for action on the most serious problem areas you uncovered during your key audience perception monitoring. You may decide to straighten out that dangerous misconception, bring to an end that potentially painful rumor, or correct that gross inaccuracy.
As you might suspect, it will be necessary to connect your new goal to an action-oriented strategy that shows how to get to where you’re going. Actually, you have just three strategic options available to you when it comes to doing something about perception and opinion. Change existing perception, create perception where there may be none, or reinforce it. Needless to say, the wrong strategy pick will taste like red-eye gravy on your clams casino. So be sure your new strategy fits well with your new public relations goal. You certainly don’t want to select “change” when the facts dictate a strategy of reinforcement.
Moving a key audience to your way of thinking is never a cakewalk. The first step is certainly asking your team’s best writer to prepare a persuasive message that will help move that key audience to your view of things. It has to be a carefully-written message targeted directly at your key external audience. S/he must produce some really corrective language that is not merely compelling, persuasive and believable, but clear and factual if they are to shift perception/opinion towards your point of view and lead to the behaviors you have in mind.
Your message will be carried to the attention of your target audience by the right communications tactics. There are many tactics available from speeches, facility tours, emails and brochures to consumer briefings, media interviews, newsletters, personal meetings and many others. But be certain that the tactics you pick are known to reach folks just like your audience members.
As always, how you communicate your message remains a concern because its credibility is fragile and always suspect. Which is why you may wish initially to unveil your corrective message before smaller meetings through presentations rather than using higher-profile news releases.
In due course, you’ll want to compare where you are now against the starting point to highlight progress made since the program’s inception. First, you’ll be demonstrating, in the form of periodic progress reports, how the monies spent on public relations can pay off. However, it’s also an alert to start a second perception monitoring session with members of your external audience. Here, you’ll use many of the same questions used in the benchmark interviews. But now, you will be on strict alert for signs that the bad news perception is being altered in your direction.
On occasion, the program will show signs of slowing down. Fortunately, adding more communications tactics, and/or increasing their frequencies, usually solves that problem.
I asked up front: Managers, Why Stress Over your PR?
Certainly, as outlined above, there will be little justification for angst or stress among business, non- profit, government agency or association managers who pursue public relations solutions that lead directly to achieving their managerial objectives.
Please feel free to publish this article and resource box in your ezine, newsletter, offline publication or website. A copy would be appreciated at bobkelly@TNI.net. Word count is 1200 including guidelines and resource box. Robert A. Kelly © 2006.
HTTP = HTML link (for blogs, profiles,phorums):
<a href="http://www.suggestyou.com/article/33755/suggestyou-Managers--Why-Stress-Over-Your-PR.html">Managers, Why Stress Over Your PR?</a>
BB link (for phorums):
[url=http://www.suggestyou.com/article/33755/suggestyou-Managers--Why-Stress-Over-Your-PR.html]Managers, Why Stress Over Your PR?[/url]
Related Articles:
6 Common Mistakes Entrepreneurs Make Trying to Grow Their Bottom Line
What You Need To Know About Mercury Spill Kits
Bookmark it:
|